Engineered Pressure Systems International (Belgium)/Engineered Pressure Systems Incorporated (United States) (Subsidiary of Belgium Headquarters).

Engineered Pressure Systems International (EPSI), formerly known as National Forge, has more than 35 years of experience in manufacturirg high pressure vessels. From its roots in the forging industry, EPSI has a broad metallurgical expertise. This company has developed many types of high pressure vessels, including vessels with threaded closures (breach or continuous): vessels with unthreaded closures with yoke frame (plate or wire-wound design); and autofrettaged, shrink-fit lined and wire-wound vessels.

EPSI primarily manufactures cold and hot isostatic presses. In addition, the company manufactures drybag cold isostatic presses (in collaboration with FREY GmbH, Germany), hydrothermal quartz growing units, deep-sea and deep-well simulators, and electrohydraulic intensifiers (standard for 100 to 700 MPa, special executions up to 900 MPa).

In the past EPSI collaborated with FMC, a Belgian subsidiary of the U.S. com­pany, Food Machinery Corporation, supplier of food processing equipment. For the food research, EPSI constructed about 16 laboratory presses. An industrial 22-liter unit has been delivered to Avomex (Mermelstein, 1998).

UHDE, another producer, was founded in 1930. It initially manufactured high pressure equipment for ammonia plants. Today, the company not only delivers equipment and complete plants but also conducts feasibility studies, process development, and product trials. UHDE manufacturers or designs the following types of equipment:

• polyethylene processes (tube reactors, heat exchangers, piping, valves);

• waterjet cutting units;

• tobacco treatment plants;

• urea production processes;

• equipment for processes using supercritical gases (high pressure extraction from plants, dyeing of synthetic fibers, and crystallization);

• isostatic presses.

In the field of preservation and pharmacy, UHDE collaborates with the Berlin University of Technology and the University of Heidelberg.

UHDE manufactures intensifier pumps for a variety of applications:

300 MPa intensifier pumps for waterjet cutting

400 MPa intensifier pumps for injection of catalysts in polyethylene production

700 MPa intensifier pumps for preservation units

1400 MPa intensifier pumps for pressure testing and autofrettage

Vessels for operation at pressures in excess of 600 MPa are made by using strip winding, which is similar to wire winding except that the vessel is made of separate strip-wound cylinders (Vardag, personal communication, August 1998. February 2000). UHDE has manufactured several laboratory units for preservation processes and is currently working on a production-scale unit.

Answer the questions:

1. How is EPSI connected to National Forge?

2. What facts from the company’s history do you know?

3. What are unthreaded closures? Are these EPSI’s main products?

4. Does the company work all by its own? Name its partners, if any.

5. What’s special about electrohydraulic intensifiers, produced by EPSI?

6. What is FMC? What companies does it deliver its equipment?

7. What’s German famous producer of high pressure equipment?

8. Has the range of products widened since company’s establishment?

9. What does polyethylene equipment include?

10. Where are supercritical gases used?

11. What’s the company’s contribution into the sphere of pharmacy?

12. How are vessels for operation at pressure of 600 MPa made?

13. What is the company’s current project?